Towards a 'welfare + rights' model in youth justice

Smith, Roger

Abstract

There have been a number of attempts to elaborate 'models' and typologies of youth justice, which are, in turn, associated with particular jurisdictions and youth justice 'systems'. Whilst analyses of this type represent attempts to differentiate according to specific criteria, such as their implicit understanding of the causes of young people's behaviour, it is also a matter of debate as to whether these tend to overstate differences at the expense of commonalities and pressures towards convergence. Despite the unresolved nature of these arguments, the article nonetheless utilises the framework offered by the notion of a 'model' of youth justice to develop an alternative conceptualisation, bringing together, rather than opposing, principles of 'welfare' and 'rights', in order to argue for a progressive and clearly distinctive approach to intervention with young people whose behaviour is seen as problematic, and who are potentially criminalised.

Citation

Smith, R. (2014). Towards a 'welfare + rights' model in youth justice. Critical and Radical Social Work, 2(3), 287-303. https://doi.org/10.1332/204986014x14096555906097

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: Nov 1, 2014
• Publication Date: Nov 1, 2014
• Deposit Date: Oct 14, 2014
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 14, 2014
• Journal: Critical and Radical Social Work
• Print ISSN: 2049-8608
• Electronic ISSN: 2049-8675
• Publisher: Bristol University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 2
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 287-303
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1332/204986014x14096555906097
• Keywords: Models of youth justice, Rights, Welfare, Youth justice.